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Festival Of Romance 2012

I’ve just been reading Louise Allen‘s “Seduced by the Scoundrel” (Mills and Boon). A shipwrecked young lady finds herself naked and defenceless on a beach in the midst of a mob. Ooh, I now know just how she must have felt. On Saturday I ended up in a terrified state of emotional nudity in the Harpur Shopping Centre in Bedford. All I had to do was to read from my book to passing shoppers. Having never been shipwrecked or had to read aloud in a shopping mall, I think I would have gone for the shipwreck if there had been a choice! At least I would have been trembling with cold as opposed to terror. The occasion of course was the Festival Of Romance. This was my first time at such an event. There I was, not even a dairy maid on the Milky Way or a knobbly asteroid in the Romance Universe. Around me were all manner of authors, some of whom I knew only as names on the covers of books I had read. My greatest impression of the whole show was that everyone was so friendly, helpful and willing to share their experiences.

You know who you are (I hope)

The festival was organised by Kate Allan and it was a triumph of hard work, logistics and enthusiasm. I think everyone involved in the organisation should be really proud of the result.I’ll be coming back to different aspects of the weekend over the next few blogs. One the highlights for me was Mandy Baggot from the “Love a Happy Ending” group picking up the prize for Innovation In Romance at the prize giving ball. The frocks were fabulous too. I shall never forget Nicky Wells performing an ad lib singing performance of “You Give Love A Bad Name” at the Rock Star party. Oh for that kind of confidence!I had some lovely table mates at the book fair so thanks to Cara Cooper, Caroline Bell Foster and Gilli Allan. Dear old Oscar was there too because he knew I would never be able to construct my poster display without his help. He is my favourite poet and some of his poems aren’t too bad. He is a knight of the cable tie and a Prince of masking tape. I had a lovely lovely time meeting all the other writers. I’ll be coming back here to digest some of my more technical impressions of the business from my independent viewpoint. In the meantime….thanks for having me, it was wonderful to be had. Emma thinx: Sisters are doing it for their shelves.

Whoo hoo! Sisters ARE doing it for the shelves! It was an amazing weekend and so loved meeting up with you again. Oscar looks very jaunty in the pic above – and the display looked amazing at the book fair. Less than 365 days to next year … can't wait!